1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medicine bottles for pills, capsules, caplets and the like and to dosage time indicators relating thereto. More particularly, the present invention pertains to day or sequential dosage indicators which involve a container collar.
2. Prior Art Statement
For decades, medicine container manufacturers have developed various types of time indicators for use on the bottles which have told the ultimate users when to take the medicine. Typically, indicators manually rotated would indicate when the next dosage was to be taken and the user, upon taking the next dosage, would advance the indicator to show the next time a dosage should be taken.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,066,183 and 2,111,637 show time indicators located on the caps of medicine bottles. Both patents disclose hours on an outer portion of the top of the cap and have indicator markers on the center top of the cap. Either the markers or the hours rotate for dosage time sequences to be indicated or "flagged" for the taking of the next dosage.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,151,599 illustrates a dosage indicator with a rotating cap having an opening or window through which a day is shown. Alternatively, a rotating central arrow is employed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,935 illustrates a bottle cap having a rotating cylinder with an arrow and numerals on the neck of the bottle so that the arrow and the numerals may be sequentially rotated relative to one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,882 shows a medicine bottle with a double cap, the outer cap of which has a dosage marker and is rotatable about the bottle, and the bottle has time markings thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,050 describes a dose indicator closure which includes a rotatable outer cap and a fixed lower cap portion. The outer cap and lower cap portion of the inner cap have complimentary contour tracks for easy usage.
In addition to the above, there have been teachings of bottle side wall indicia with movable cap markers, but these all suffer from disadvantages of difficult molding of bottle side walls and major revamping of existing bottle molds.
In summary, the prior art teaches drastic cap redesign or significant bottle side wall remolding to achieve a product which has dosage time indication. However, the present invention container and collar allows for conventional cap use and for very minor or no bottle mold changes yet results in an effective product for dosage time indication.